India is an immense country full of culture, beauty and diversity but also contradictions and extremes. In all honesty it took us a while to get used to the atmosphere and get over the culture shock. However, once we did we fell in love with the country, and its people – so much so...
Varanasi – Holy City on the River Ganges
In our opinion Varanasi, the holy city on the river Ganges is the city (that we visited) that most embodies India. It is pure colour, chaos, madness and tradition. Although we were expecting Varanasi to be far too chaotic and weird to be enjoyable, it actually turned out to be our favourite place in...
Dharamsala – A piece of Tibet in India
After exploring the golden triangle we needed a change of scenery. Alex has an interest in Buddhism and meditation and feels strongly that the Tibetan Buddhists were forced out of their homeland by the Chinese, so the next logical step was visit the Himalayan town of Dharamsala – A piece of Tibet in India....
The Pilgrimage Town of Pushkar – Holy camels!
The Hindu pilgrimage town of Pushkar in Rajasthan, (about 3 hours from Jaipur by train or private taxi), is an all year round destination, as it is one of the holiest towns in India. The town is centred around the lake fabled to have been created by the god Brahma, and is home to...
India’s Golden Triangle, Part Three: The Pink City of Jaipur
In order to complete our tour of India’s Golden Triangle, we took a short train ride from Agra to our third destination – the renowned pink city of Jaipur, in Rajasthan. We were quite excited to take the train as Indian trains have this semi-mythical reputation of being the quintessential Indian experience. Unfortunately getting...
India’s Golden Triangle, Part Two: The Taj Mahal & Agra
Arguably the number one sight in India is the Taj Mahal. Located in the city of Agra in the state of Uttar Pradesh it is said to be the most beautiful building in the world. It is one of those things that is so iconic, it is burnt into our collective consciousness. Anyone remember...
India’s Golden Triangle, Part One: Three days in Delhi
Delhi was our first stop and therefore our first impression of India. Many guidebooks and people familiar with the place told us not to start our India trip with three days in Delhi, as we might find it a bit overwhelming. Overwhelmed, us??!! Who do you think we are? We have been all over...